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How to Boost Your Portfolio with Top Utilities Stocks Set to Beat Earnings

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Two factors often determine stock prices in the long run: earnings and interest rates. Investors can't control the latter, but they can focus on a company's earnings results every quarter.

Life and the stock market are both about expectations, and rising above what is expected is often rewarded, while falling short can come with negative consequences. Investors might want to try to capture stronger returns by finding positive earnings surprises.

The ability to identify stocks that are likely to top quarterly earnings expectations can be profitable, but it's no simple task. Here at Zacks, our Earnings ESP filter helps make things easier.

The Zacks Earnings ESP, Explained

The Zacks Earnings ESP, or Expected Surprise Prediction, aims to find earnings surprises by focusing on the most recent analyst revisions. The basic premise is that if an analyst reevaluates their earnings estimate ahead of an earnings release, it means they likely have new information that could possibly be more accurate.

The core of the ESP model is comparing the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, where the resulting percentage difference between the two equals the Expected Surprise Prediction. The Zacks Rank is also factored into the ESP metric to better help find companies that appear poised to top their next bottom-line consensus estimate, which will hopefully help lift the stock price.

In fact, when we combined a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better and a positive Earnings ESP, stocks produced a positive surprise 70% of the time. Perhaps most importantly, using these parameters has helped produce 28.3% annual returns on average, according to our 10 year backtest.

Stocks with a ranking of #3 (Hold), or 60% of all stocks covered by the Zacks Rank, are expected to perform in-line with the broader market. Stocks with rankings of #2 (Buy) and #1 (Strong Buy), or the top 15% and top 5% of stocks, respectively, should outperform the market; Strong Buy stocks should outperform more than any other rank.

Should You Consider Telus?

The last thing we will do today, now that we have a grasp on the ESP and how powerful of a tool it can be, is to quickly look at a qualifying stock. Telus (TU - Free Report) holds a #3 (Hold) at the moment and its Most Accurate Estimate comes in at $0.22 a share 27 days away from its upcoming earnings release on February 9, 2023.

TU has an Earnings ESP figure of +1.57%, which, as explained above, is calculated by taking the percentage difference between the $0.22 Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.21. Telus is one of a large database of stocks with positive ESPs. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

TU is just one of a large group of Utilities stocks with a positive ESP figure. Dominion Energy (D - Free Report) is another qualifying stock you may want to consider.

Dominion Energy, which is readying to report earnings on February 8, 2023, sits at a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) right now. It's Most Accurate Estimate is currently $1.06 a share, and D is 26 days out from its next earnings report.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Dominion Energy is $1.06, and when you take the percentage difference between that number and its Most Accurate Estimate, you get the Earnings ESP figure of +0.47%.

TU and D's positive ESP figures tell us that both stocks have a good chance at beating analyst expectations in their next earnings report.

Find Stocks to Buy or Sell Before They're Reported

Use the Zacks Earnings ESP Filter to turn up stocks with the highest probability of positively, or negatively, surprising to buy or sell before they're reported for profitable earnings season trading. Check it out here >>


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


TELUS Corporation (TU) - free report >>

Dominion Energy Inc. (D) - free report >>

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